Stax Records trumpeter Ben Cauley dies

Ben Cauley, a trumpeter known for being a founding member of Stax Records’ Bar-Kays, died Monday, the Associated Pressreports. He was 67.

Cauley helped found the Bar-Kays, a backing band for many of the artists who performed at Memphis’ Stax Records, in 1966, and was well-known for being the only survivor in a plane crash that killed Otis Redding — one of the musicians the Bar-Kays backed — in 1967.

The Bar-Kays went on to record with other big-name musicians including Isaac Hayes and the Staple Singers, and were inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

“He really loved music,” Cauley’s daughter Chekita Cauley-Campbell told the AP. “His music was really his life. He breathed music.”